{"id":460223,"date":"2026-07-16T15:40:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T13:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/16\/ue-interrogazione-del-pd-sulle-nomine-al-crea-zingaretti-difendere-il-merito\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T16:20:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:20:58","slug":"eu-pd-parliamentary-question-on-appointments-to-crea-zingaretti-uphold-merit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/16\/eu-pd-parliamentary-question-on-appointments-to-crea-zingaretti-uphold-merit\/","title":{"rendered":"EU: PD parliamentary question on appointments to CREA. Zingaretti: \u201cUphold merit\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Nicola Zingaretti, head of the Italian delegation to the S&D Group in the European Parliament, and Camilla Laureti, S&D MEP on the Committee on Agriculture and the Democratic Party\u2019s agriculture spokesperson, have tabled a question to the European Commission regarding the recent appointments of the twelve scientific directors of the CREA centres, Italy\u2019s leading public agricultural research body.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
The initiative echoes the concerns raised by seventeen of Italy\u2019s most authoritative scientists<\/strong>\u2014including Nobel laureate Giorgio Parisi, life senator Elena Cattaneo, and numerous leading national experts in agricultural genetics and plant biology\u2014who, in an open letter, have highlighted a lack of consistency between the candidates selected<\/strong> and the research areas of the centres they are to head<\/strong>. According to the signatories, the case of the Centre for Genomics and Bioinformatics\u2014a crucial facility for plant breeding and biotechnology\u2014is emblematic, as a candidate whose profile is far removed from the centre\u2019s mission has reportedly been nominated to head it. The scientists point out that CREA\u2019s own statutes require directors to have<\/strong> \u201ca high scientific profile in the subjects covered by the Centre\u2019s activities<\/strong>.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n
According to the delegation, \u201cthe matter has a clear European dimension\u201d in that \u201cCREA receives substantial EU funding under Horizon Europe and is a holder of the HR Excellence in Research Award.\u201d It has therefore made a commitment to the Commission to apply the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for Recruitment.<\/div>\n
“Public research is not a fiefdom to be carved up,” stated Nicola Zingaretti<\/strong>. “When the competence of those leading the agricultural sector\u2019s flagship research body is called into question, Italy\u2019s credibility in Europe is at stake. Merit cannot be invoked at conferences only to be betrayed in decision-making. Those who receive European funds must comply with the standards demanded by the EU: openness, transparency, and competence. We will take this matter to the European institutions, because defending public science means defending the country\u2019s future,\u201d he added.<\/div>\n
According to Laureti, “the quality of research<\/strong>, the foundation of innovation, is a cornerstone of the competitiveness of our agri-food system<\/strong>, not least in tackling the major challenge of sustainability.” And, \u201cprecisely for this reason, it is essential that public research bodies are guided solely by criteria of merit, competence, and transparency, all the more so when they manage EU funds,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe freedom and autonomy of scientific research,\u201d he concluded, \u201care assets to be defended in the interests of citizens and the country\u2019s development. This is why we say no to the politics of patronage and to any political interference that undermines technical and scientific expertise,\u201d he emphasised.<\/div>\n
\n
In their parliamentary question, the two MEPs ask the Commission \u201cwhether selection procedures that result in profiles unrelated to the centre\u2019s area of expertise are compatible with the OTM-R principles; whether it intends to take this matter into account in the forthcoming external evaluation of CREA as part of the HRS4R strategy, while urging the organisation to address the issue in its action plan; and whether it will ensure that the scientific governance of centres involved in Horizon Europe projects guarantees adequate standards for the use of EU funds.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Nicola Zingaretti, head of the Italian delegation to the S&D Group in the European Parliament, and Camilla Laureti, S&D MEP on the Committee on Agriculture and the Democratic Party\u2019s agriculture spokesperson, have tabled a question to the European Commission regarding the recent appointments of the twelve scientific directors of the CREA centres, Italy\u2019s leading […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":453602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25709,25774],"tags":[25893,25855,28074,33786,34885,26787,26698,34886,34887,28325,26707,33394,29751],"class_list":["post-460223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agrifood-en","category-in-brief","tag-agriculture-en","tag-commissione-en","tag-crea","tag-direttori","tag-food","tag-innovation-en","tag-interrogazione","tag-laureti","tag-nomine-en-2","tag-pd-en-2","tag-ue","tag-zingaretti-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":460224,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460223\/revisions\/460224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}